By Daniel Kotzab, Ph.D.
Sep. 23, 2024

U.S. Army Photo by Sgt. Gianna Elle Sulger

What is stress?

When people talk about stress, it is usually in a negative way¹. However, stress is a normal reaction of the body to a challenging situation. The purpose of stress is to temporarily improve our performance. This works well, depending on the task. A simple task that only requires strength, such as lifting a heavy object, benefits from high stress. But a task like inserting a thread into a sewing needle does not. In short, the more a task depends on fine motor skills and mental ability, the less stress is helpful. Still, a little stress helps you perform better.

Anything can be a stressor and whether something is experienced as stressful can vary from person to person. What someone perceives as stressful can be a joy for someone else and the other way around.

There are two types of stress:

• Eustress: positive, motivating stress (e.g., what one might perceive during a sporting competition)
• Distress: negative stress (e.g., what one might perceive during a dangerous situation)

What happens during a stressful situation?

During a stress response, the brain sends stress hormones that put the body into a fight or flight state. These hormones increase the heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing. They can slow down the digestion system and release glucose into the blood. Sweat glands are activated and muscles become tense. You are now prepared to either run or fight. When the stressor disappears, the body regulates itself by no longer emitting these hormones and the effect is reversed.

Our body’s stress reaction to eustress and distress is the same. Our mind determines how we experience the situation. Regardless of the type of stress, chronic stress can develop if there is no recovery phase, or you experience too many stressors over a long time. Chronic stress is a constant feeling of pressure and can lead to psychosomatic problems. Some of these include but are not limited to tense muscles, sleep problems, headache, high blood pressure, and weight gain.

This is much like training a muscle. Your muscles grow by being stressed (e.g., lifting weights). You can continually train and stress the muscles, but without a proper recovery, the risk of injury rises.

How can you manage stress?

There are several strategies for managing stress. Service members in the German Armed Forces receive a psychoeducational education program on a regular basis. The goal of the program is to help soldiers understand that stress is a normal reaction that can be controlled and can be used to even improve performance². The program also teaches helpful and easy-to-learn skills to reduce stress response quickly. Two of these skills are described below and are some that some people already subconsciously use in stressful situations. They can empower people to feel less helpless and gain control during a stressful situation.

Skill 1: 4-4-4-4 or Box Breathing³

I am sure everybody has taken a deep breath during a stressful event, but you can also breathe in a more efficient way. Doing so can change how you feel and help you focus your attention and improve your performance. Controlling your breathing enables your body to begin calming down, signaling to your mind that the situation might not be as stressful as you first thought. Below is a breathing technique that military, police, firefighters, and medics use.

• Step 1: Breathe in, counting to four.
• Step 2: Hold your breath for four seconds.
• Step 3: Slowly exhale through your mouth for four seconds.
• Step 4: Repeat steps one to three until you start to relax.

Skill 2: Progressive Muscle Relaxation⁴

As a child, you probably punched the bed, screamed, or tensed your muscles in some way when you were extremely stressed. Tensing and relaxing your muscles in a controlled way is called progressive muscle relaxation. Intentionally contracting your muscles before releasing them results in your muscles feeling less tense than before. This signals to the mind that the stressful situation might not be as stressful as initially believed.

• Step 1: Contract one muscle group for five to 10 seconds. It is usually best to start with your hands, followed by your arms.
• Step 2: Slowly release the tension in that muscle group.
• Step 3: After a few seconds, repeat steps one and two for the next muscle group.

These two skills are some of the most basic ways to reduce stress. Don’t forget, the more you practice (in either relaxed or slightly stressful situations), the easier you can use them when needed. Once these skills become automatic, they will be easily accessible in highly stressful situations and enable you to gain more control in the situation.

And it may be comforting to remember that stress is a normal reaction to a challenging situation and what is challenging varies by each person.

References

1. Wezyk, A. B., Arden‐Close, E., & Turner‐Cobb, J. M. (2024). ‘Ask a hundred people, you get a hundred definitions’: A comparison of lay and expert understanding of stress and its associations with health. Stress and Health, 40(3), e3328.
2. Krueckel, O., Heidler, A., von Luedinghausen, N., Auschek, M., & Soest, M. (2019). Building resilience and hardiness in military leaders–Robustness training programs of the German army. In The Routledge International handbook of military psychology and mental health (pp. 151-163). Routledge.
3. Röttger, S., Theobald, D. A., Abendroth, J., & Jacobsen, T. (2021). The effectiveness of combat tactical breathing as compared with prolonged exhalation. Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, 46(1), 19-28.
4. Muhammad Khir, S., Wan Mohd Yunus, W. M. A., Mahmud, N., Wang, R., Panatik, S. A., Mohd Sukor, M. S., & Nordin, N. A. (2024). Efficacy of Progressive Muscle Relaxation in Adults for Stress, Anxiety, and Depression: A Systematic Review. Psychology Research and Behavior Management, 345-365.

Dr. Daniel Kotzab is a psychologist of the German Armed Forces and an exchange scientist at the Psychological Health Center of Excellence. His military experience has included conducting assessments of pilots, and doing three tours as an embedded psychologist.